actually japanese

a blog dedicated to addressing issues surrounding japanese culture, with a slight focus on diaspora.

[actuallyjapanese]

hello dear! im a fictive from a piece of japanese media, and in that of course i use japanese honorifics and such, but the body is actually white/american. I was wondering if it would be disrespectful or not to refer to my source friends with their last name + proper japanese honorific? id like confirmation on this before i talk to anyone about my past life in my source. if it is, ill be sure to only use their first names. the reason im unsure of this is because i heard someone say it was disrespectful for foreigners to use japanese honorifics, and im not entirly sure on the validity of that? it very well may be, though! thank you! :)

this is unbelievably racist, please get help

-mod yuu

[actuallyjapanese]

whenever someone says that japanese people are the white people of asia i feel like im about to go insane. like one time on twitter i saw some guy say that japan was the most "culture vulture" country on planet earth and i just about lost it

Hilarious to accuse japan of being a “"culture vulture” as if the US doesn't exist 

Anyway, I can understand why some east asian groups would feel that way given imperialism, however, i feel like whenever people call japanese folks “the white people of asia” it's erasing the history of whites oppressing us-- white people were still very much the white people in east asia-- and it's typically meant as a disingenuous excuse to call us “basically white” and invalidate anti asian racism. 

-mod yuu (excuse any typing mistakes, i just woke up)

[actuallyjapanese]

what we say: using or participating in our culture !!without us!! is harmful to us because it furthers misinformation and stereotypes against us while somehow passing credit to those who stole it

example - a white person with dreads is following some kind of new hippie trend but a black person with dreads literally gets suspended from school for it and called a “thug”, “hoodrat”, etc.

what people hear: culture should never be shared and if you participate in a culture other than your own you’re inherently an evil racist monster

???

[actuallyjapanese]

When people do this, it's a manipulation tactic-- the idea is to make establishing a boundary such a massive ordeal that you give up and do not try again. Don't fall for it. -Mod Yuu

[actuallyjapanese]

I saw this post going around implying all East Asians are white passing because we have lighter skin? Like wtf? Yes, we do benefit from colorism and that's a huge problem but that's completely different than being White passing. I have never been mistaken for a White person because of my eyes. That doesn't mean that there aren't white-passing Asians, but having lighter skin does not automatically make you White passing, because White people have found other features to other us for.

being white passing didn’t stop us japanese-americans from being put in concentration camps (the one-drop law included diaspora as little as 1/16th japanese and orphaned children who had “one drop” of japanese blood) so i think OP should probably cut the crap and just say they hate asians ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-mod yuu

[actuallyjapanese]

Phew. We were asked to reblog a post, but it’s really long and text heavy, so I’m going to link it for anyone interested:

[click here]

It’s a riveting back-and-forth (between white people and, you know, actual East Asians) about appropriation of EA culture.

[whitepeoplemagic666]

Isn’t Most of Japanese culture borrowing heavily from Chinese and Korean culture not to mention western culture also didn’t the Japanese kill thousands of Chinese in some kind of genocide. Out of all the East Asians Japanese would be the white people Of the East Asian world. Y'all should stop borrowing from Chinese culture because you were the ones Genociding them.

[actuallyjapanese]

LOL

I can tell you're not looking to reason and have no idea what you're talking about, but in case anyone reading this is, here's the issue(s) with that:

We came from China. Why do you think we share an ancient writing system? A lot of our oldest traditions are shared by or derived from Chinese customs because we have an extensive history with China since the dawn of Japan.

I can't think of anything we supposedly "borrow" from Korea. We have similar folklore and traditions for the same reasons as the above, and unrelated, but yes, we did fucked up things to Korea and its people. Nobody is denying that, but it doesn't mean we can't protect our cultures and stand by our Korean friends protecting theirs.

Why do you think Japan and Japanese people "love" Western culture so much? I'll wait. You done yet? Ready? Uh-huh: because it was fucking forced on us during and after World War II and continues to be to this very day with the U.S. military in Japan and specifically covering Okinawa. You can't shove your sugar-coated imperialist propaganda down other countries' throats and then complain when they fall victim to all of your disgusting beauty standards and pop culture, among other, more significant things like the changes made to architecture and other Westernization effects.

And even then, that has nothing to do with what we, as diaspora, hold high and even sacred within our culture, or what we have left of it. Our families had to read signs that said, "NO J*PS" during and after the war, and many were interned. People peel back their eyes and make jokes at us, make fun of our names and food, etc. but now that Japan is "cool", they want to modify our clothing, convert to our culture-specific religion for some reason, brag about marrying or having children with us (gross), visit Japan because they think it's going to be some anime fantasy, and a whole bunch of other fetishistic, nasty, Western nonsense bullshit that we have every right to call out and fight back against.

Thank you! Have a bad day. 🤗

[chromnur]

[genderfluidliquidgas]

White people who are mad at POC who clap back at them for wearing traditional clothes they shouldn’t be are pathetic. Learn the history. Know wtf y'all are wearing. Make sure it isn’t offensive for some average everyday Joe to wear said traditional clothing. Don’t be a fuck knuckle.

Y'all would be pissed of someone went around pretending to be the Pope and dressed as him and made fun of him so why are y'all so shocked when POC are pissed when you wear traditional/religious clothing casually???

Learn some fucken history. Stop being a shit fuck. Listen to POC when they tell you you’re being offensive. END OF STORY. ✌️✌️

[actuallyjapanese]

Phew. We were asked to reblog a post, but it's really long and text heavy, so I'm going to link it for anyone interested:

[click here]

It's a riveting back-and-forth (between white people and, you know, actual East Asians) about appropriation of EA culture.

[ali-vasion]

“Okay, honestly– okay fam, I wanted to thank you guys so much for like, supporting me today! I checked my hashtag and I honestly didnt expect so many.. support. Like, okay, lets be real. Im not the most liked one in the group (22/7). Im not very popular in the japanese fandom because im not like, you know, im not– you know small and not really petite.And Im not saying im cute either– Im not the visual! Of the group! Im not the Jimin in BTS– Like, I am some animal. literally like a sewer rat. Leaving that aside. I was just really happy cause like sometimes I get really discouraged looking at comments being like ‘oh, sally’s not very pretty I dont know why shes in the group if shes half english she shouldnt be in this group’ It kinda discourages me but I didnt think that I would get this much support from over seas fans and it honestly means the world to me.”

[filmsfoodandfandom]

For those of you who don’t know, Amaki Sally is a seiyuu for the new idol anime 22/7. At first everyone thought she was just another interchangeable idol until, all of a sudden during a livestream, she started speaking perfect English.

It turns out Sally is an American-born actress from California who moved to Japan to become a seiyuu. So she’s completely fluent in both English and Japanese.

But that’s not all. Contrary to the usual Idol image pushed by the industry, Sally has a delightfully cynical sense of humor, best show off during a Q&A with the streamers. (Forgive the poor quality gifs…)

She’s also COMPLETE. MEMELORD. GARBAGE.

It turns out she has several secret tumblr pages devoted to anime and fandom junk. You can see highlights of the English livestream at the below link, and at the end you can see her doing her impression of the Naruto run:

https://twitter.com/nise_shi/status/914976861041565696

Incredibly, she’s also openly bisexual, which is a HUGE no-no in the Idol industry, let alone mainstream Japanese society.

Much to her surprise, the revelation about her English-fluency lead to an explosion of popularity on her group’s website, so much so that their label special released one of their first songs for overseas audiences.

So in conclusion: one of you gay anime nerds actually moved to Japan and went viral as an Idol.

This is quite possibly the funniest/greatest thing to ever come from this hell site.

If you can, go support the group by buying their new single, available on their website above.

[actuallyjapanese]

...Okay, please don't refer to an actual Japanese person as a "gay anime nerd" and speak as if she's on par with American weeaboos and their culture.

I understand that you respect her and are looking to spread her image and story to keep her popularity and likability up, both in and outside of Japan, and that's important! She deserves attention and love from her fans.

But know that a Japanese-American liking anime and moving to Japan is not an uncommon occurance and that Japanese-Americans are (you guessed it) Japanese!

Thank you for this elaboration, but please consider this and be more courteous with your word choices in the future.

[yimmypee]

‘asian girls are so pretty!! i wish i was kawaii too!!’ ok White Person but are you willing to stan fr th dark skinned asian girls? hairy asian girls? fat asian girls? asian girls who do not actually fit into your rigid standards of white approved beauty and fuckability regarding fetishistic white men who want a waifu? are you even ready to acknowledge asian women who arent eastern asian?

[eternal-dannation]

someone posted in leftbook today an article discussing how heavily integrated japanese imagery is in the new bladerunner movie and how there are like exactly zero asian people in it and it got me thinking about just how much asia has sculpted the western landscape of sci-fi while being systematically excluded from it. from bladerunner to firefly to star wars, white creators want everything about us except for us lol

[actuallyjapanese]

I can't believe I had to read this man say, "You're not Japanese-- You're only Asian-American." Of all the white bullshit. 🙄

[actuallyjapanese]

That user's a real piece of work but I'd refrain from using a slur against chinese people especially considering they didn't even bring it into the ask

the slur is/has been used against all asians, myself included, so i’m pretty comfortable reclaiming it. i can tag it, if it bothers you - mod yuu

[actuallyjapanese]

You aren't actually Japanese.

welp lads the jig is up guess we gotta turn in our chink cards - mod yuu

[majokko120]

Why Japanese Culture Is Superior

Japanese culture has become superior to Western culture because it still adheres to aesthetics in a traditional way (sound) while it uses modern tech and styles to express itself.

The West has stopped progressing once it abandoned Western tradition and traditional concepts of beauty but chose atheistic and so called enlightened ways instead. Beauty and Love are not rational we can therefore not expect boring rationalists, who deprive themselves of these immaterial gifts, to produce something as genuine and wild as these two. Instead, in a society where these people form the absolute majority, regardless of race and gender, beauty and love have become usual targets for mockery and cynicism.

It was only natural that if Japan would stick to being Japanese, while adopting Western tech, that their cultural output would surpass the West, anime is only one facet of it. (See Anime vs Cartoons and Manga vs Comics for a fair comparison) Compared to Japan, the West looks uninspired and like an empty shell (dead inside). Japanese media is surely not for everyone (that is rarely the case for any art), but a Westerner hating on Japan for producing aesthetically sound culture is like someone who is gravely ill denouncing a healthy person as sick.

The West is declining because of what the West believes to be right and correct: Messed up values and ugliness, as can be seen in Social Justice Warrior movements and in modern art (Western inventions).

The Westerner, disconnected from his own culture and history, is being eaten alive by every savage who only dares to grab him. Like an orphan without a home, he is doomed to perish, and the hands that are inflicting death upon him are merely the demons who have been summoned by his own actions.

[ayanuji-deactivated20200328]

What the fuck did I just read.

[warrenkoles]

op please never go to japan or interact with actual japanese people

[actuallyjapanese]

[actuallyjapanese]

💗💗💗💗

💞💞💞💞

[moved2croatia-deactivated201809]

I feel like asian people are constantly limited (esp. in western cultures) because a lot of us cannot be ourselves without nonasian people either fetishizing us or making fun of us. Asian teenagers, and mainly asian girls, can’t wear their fucking school uniform without western people thinking it’s “sexy” when those people are usually underage. Asian people can’t enjoy cultural foods without condesending people making rude comments like “omg is it dog meat?!?!?!” Asian people’s hard work is brushed off almost always. We can’t even play the characters made to represent us, the roles are always given to a white actor. Don’t get me started on how our languages are always seen as just some cutesy lines and squiggles that are “aesthetic. And people who are Indian, Syrian, Malaysian, Arab, Russian, or from a country that isn’t China/Japan/Korea are ALWAYS excluded when people talk about Asia. I’m sick of that. Asian people deserve to exist without being fetishized or mocked. 

If you’re not asian you can reblog